Fear Of Dying

[Tick]

 When I think about my demise I have different feelings each time. At times I feel like I'm not afraid to die. Other times the thought of it makes me uneasy and a little fearful.
Whether you believe in a God, a Heaven, or a Hell, or just eternal darkness, we all don't know for certain what awaits us after were gone.
I guess in the end the thing I fear the most is being separated from my wife and daughter. Not seeing my daughter grow up, who will be 11 in 3 days probably gives me the most anxiety.
This topic is on my mind because a friend of my wife's who was 45 years old man(a year younger then myself) died last week from brain cancer. She said he was an always upbeat positive person. He battled hard but he lost his fight last week leaving behind a devastated 10 year son who was his dads best friend. Its his only child who he was raising as a single parent.
The thought of his son losing his dad is making me extremely sad.

[Super Dude]

It's the finality of it for me.  No restart button.

[lordxizor]

I'm not really scared of dying for myself. I, like Tick, am afraid for my family. I have a wonderful wife and two young sons. Thinking of them without me to provide for them and guide them as they grow makes me feel sick to my stomach. I sometimes think I should be writing letters or making videos of myself for my son's future just in case something were to happen to me.

[MetalManiac666]

I am not afraid of death.

[Chino]

I'm not afraid of it. I just think it sucks.

[El Barto]

I'm not afraid of it. I just think it sucks.

Well put.  It terrified me as a young lad.  And then one day,  I finally came to grips with there being no God and it stopped scaring me.  The absence of God just turns it into non-existence, rather than some spooky unknown. 

[chknptpie]

I'm seriously freaked about it. What if it hurts, what if its slow.

[Dublagent66]

No, because when you die, you don't know you're dead.  So how can you be afraid of it?  It's the part leading up to death that sucks.  What's the saying?  Anticipation of death is worse than death itself.

[ReaperKK]

No, because when you die, you don't know you're dead.  So how can you be afraid of it?  It's the part leading up to death that sucks.  What's the saying?  Anticipation of death is worse than death itself.

I agree with this statement.

[Edan the Man]

As a young person who has never experienced death personally (such as with close family or friends), I think death is too alien of a concept for me to truly grasp, and by extension, to fear.

Obviously the thought of ceasing to exist sucks, but I guess what I'm trying to say is at this point in my life, its not a threat I feel worth losing sleep over. Its a power I cannot fully appreciate due to my lack of experience.

In conclusion, soup.

[ZBomber]

I'm not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of my loved ones dying, and I am fearful for how those same people would cope if I died.

[Tick]

I'm not afraid of it. I just think it sucks.

Well put.  It terrified me as a young lad.  And then one day,  I finally came to grips with there being no God and it stopped scaring me.  The absence of God just turns it into non-existence, rather than some spooky unknown. 

That's interesting to me. For me, whether or not there is a God changes nothing as far as my fear goes. Either way, I'm leaving my wife and daughter behind. They would no longer be part of my daily existence. That I have to say does make me fear death. It I was single I don't think I would fear it much at all.

[El Barto]

I'm not afraid of it. I just think it sucks.

Well put.  It terrified me as a young lad.  And then one day,  I finally came to grips with there being no God and it stopped scaring me.  The absence of God just turns it into non-existence, rather than some spooky unknown. 

That's interesting to me. For me, whether or not there is a God changes nothing as far as my fear goes. Either way, I'm leaving my wife and daughter behind. They would no longer be part of my daily existence. That I have to say does make me fear death. It I was single I don't think I would fear it much at all.

Yup.  I'll be the end of the line for the Barto clan, which certainly provides a much simpler world view.  Makes it much easier to enjoy the show, frankly.  As for the God part,  that only relates to where you go, not what you leave behind.  Two very different concerns.  Since I'll leave nothing behind but a gorgeous corpse,  where I go is the only thing that matters and in the absence of God,  where I go will be nowhere. 

[Scrub206]

Im not afraid of dying, its how i die im scared shitless of. also hurting the people closest to me is another issue aswell.

[XJDenton]

Dying is not a problem. Its what comes after that concerns me.

[lordxizor]

Im not afraid of dying, its how i die im scared shitless of.

Yeah, ideally I'll die as an old man content with the life that I've lived, but if something happens and I go sooner, I'm not sure if I'd rather have time to spend with loved ones or to just have it be instantanteous.

[Volk9]

Dying on its own, not really.

I'm more scared of the effect it'll have on my family, friends, etc.

[jasc15]

I don't fear dying, but I do fear dying with regrets.

[Kosmo]

I'm more afraid of someone close to me dying. But personally, no, not really.

[Tick]

I'm more afraid of someone close to me dying.

I definitely agree.

[VioletS16]

Not afraid of dying, afraid of the manner in which I die in.

[Gadough]

I'm accepting of it. As long as I die when I'm supposed to....I'd be scared of dying tomorrow, or next week. But passing away as an old man doesn't bother me much.

[yeshaberto]

Not afraid of dying, afraid of the manner in which I die in.

pretty much that

[lateralus88]

I voted yes. Simply because, as a child, I feared death more than one my age should have. In second grade, I started having many realizations about death, and that once it happened that was it. Done. Kablamo. It's over. Forever. Even at that age, being raised in a Jewish household, I just couldn't get myself to believe there was an afterlife. That it all ended in incomprehensible blackness. This fear got so bad as a child that I couldn't sleep most nights. I would just think about death, and what happened. I just wondered, and wondered and wondered. I was literally scared for my very existence. It got so bad I ended up seeing a therapist for a good while until I got more comfortable with the idea of death.

To this day, I am not nearly as afraid of death as I used to be. But the idea still bothers me. I honestly get a sick feeling, irritable and overly worrisome when I think about people close to me dying, or people claiming they want to die.

And yet vicarious death takes no affect on me. Neither does death in film, books, music, etc. And I even like writing about death. What the fuck Alex?

[Aramatheis]

Not afraid of death, but of a painful death.

[Super Dude]

I voted yes. Simply because, as a child, I feared death more than one my age should have. In second grade, I started having many realizations about death, and that once it happened that was it. Done. Kablamo. It's over. Forever. Even at that age, being raised in a Jewish household, I just couldn't get myself to believe there was an afterlife. That it all ended in incomprehensible blackness. This fear got so bad as a child that I couldn't sleep most nights. I would just think about death, and what happened. I just wondered, and wondered and wondered. I was literally scared for my very existence. It got so bad I ended up seeing a therapist for a good while until I got more comfortable with the idea of death.

To this day, I am not nearly as afraid of death as I used to be. But the idea still bothers me. I honestly get a sick feeling, irritable and overly worrisome when I think about people close to me dying, or people claiming they want to die.

And yet vicarious death takes no affect on me. Neither does death in film, books, music, etc. And I even like writing about death. What the fuck Alex?

Maybe we are clones.  It wasn't in second grade for me, but at a young age I went through the same thought process.

[bout to crash]

I was like that as a kid, too.

Now not so much. Sometimes I feel scared and sometimes I just sorta shrug about it. Of course in my line of work your perspective changes a lot, too.

[Tick]

My guess also is that its easier to not fear something you are not squarely faced with at the moment. I would think some of the no's would be yes's if they were to find out death awaited them within a matter of days from now.
The thing about death is no one knows exactly what happens when you die. Nothing is a more uncertain conclusion. We all have our thoughts and opinions but none of us knows for sure.

[Perpetual Change]

Not at all. While I've had phases where I'm a believer and phases where I'm not, no matter what deep-down inside I think I instinctively know that this life isn't the end. I guess that's proof that after all this wondering I've come to find that I really do have "faith". I'm not scared of death at all, and my best guess is that it's because something within me knows that death's not a big deal.

[Aramatheis]

death's not a big deal.

if it was so hard, not everyone would be able to do it

[Ultimetalhead]

I voted yes. Simply because, as a child, I feared death more than one my age should have. In second grade, I started having many realizations about death, and that once it happened that was it. Done. Kablamo. It's over. Forever. Even at that age, being raised in a Jewish household, I just couldn't get myself to believe there was an afterlife. That it all ended in incomprehensible blackness. This fear got so bad as a child that I couldn't sleep most nights. I would just think about death, and what happened. I just wondered, and wondered and wondered. I was literally scared for my very existence. It got so bad I ended up seeing a therapist for a good while until I got more comfortable with the idea of death.

To this day, I am not nearly as afraid of death as I used to be. But the idea still bothers me. I honestly get a sick feeling, irritable and overly worrisome when I think about people close to me dying, or people claiming they want to die.

And yet vicarious death takes no affect on me. Neither does death in film, books, music, etc. And I even like writing about death. What the fuck Alex?

I used to have a thing about this too, and not to go all P/R on this thread or anything, but you'll never guess how I got over it.

My Mom and the church told me I'd go to heaven. After I got over that delusion I realized that death wouldn't be so bad. I'm concerned about how it will happen, but when it does happen, I'm going to be really excited. After years of being fed various bullshit stories about the afterlife, I desperately want to know what happens.

[j]

Fear of death is just a fear of the unknown.  No sense in that; I'm even a little bit curious.

As for family and other loved ones, all you can do is hope that your example to them during life will help them to cope.  Since I've been doing a rotation working in a big trauma ER for the past few months, one of the worst things to see is when somebody is given news of their likely impending death, and they flip out wailing and panicking and losing their shit with family and friends all around.  It seems insensitive, but that has to be infinitely harder on the family than an individual who calmly accepts it, not giving up, but handling the possibility with a little courage and composure.  That said, I don't know if it's harder for somebody who was in a freak accident or something and gets it all just dropped on them, or somebody who has suffered for a long time and had lots of time to dwell on the possibility.

-J

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Being a young'un, I'm not exactly thinking of death yet.

[Tick]

Fear of death is just a fear of the unknown.  No sense in that


-J

Well, honestly most things people are fearful of are senseless.

[Firetruck]

No, because when you die, you don't know you're dead.  So how can you be afraid of it?  It's the part leading up to death that sucks.  What's the saying?  Anticipation of death is worse than death itself.

I think I can help you with this one as I have it quoted on my desktop background.

"Life is pleasant,
Death is peaceful,
It's the transition that's troublesome." - Isaac Asimov